Hell Happened (28 page)

“Okay, I see what you’re saying. Let’s outsmart those dumb asses,” Eddie said and got into position with Katie. When they were all ready, Eddie gave Sade a signal. Sade pulled the door open.

Katie got the first kill with a three-round grouping the size of a quarter through the neck of a large male zombie. The back of his neck blew out along with what was left of the thing’s spine. It dropped.

Danny and Josh combined to put down the other zombie that had been waiting at the door. There were now four badly mutilated bodies of zombies lying in or near the doorway of the food mart.

“Spot lights!” Danny called. “See anything?”

Neither Eddie nor Rusty could see any more Zombies lurking.

“Let’s try the thermals again,” suggested Danny, who seemed to have a firmer grasp on the situation, so Eddie let him lead. Sade and Rusty grabbed the thermals they’d put behind the SWAT truck. They moved carefully to the sides of the door, staying clear of the fields of fire of Katie and Danny. Eddie and Josh swept the spotlights to the limits they could reach from their positions with one hand and held their pistols in the other.

“I see nothing,” Sade called back to the group after sweeping the area with his thermal imager.

“Me either...,” Rusty started to say, “
wait
!
Up high!”
He grabbed Sade and dragged him to the ground. A large shape came jumping down from the racking. Josh had the first shots and bullet holes appeared in the zombie’s chest and legs. As the beast staggered under the onslaught, he came into Katie’s sight picture and she finished the thing off with shots to the face and neck. It dropped to the floor, twitching. Katie and Josh hollered “clear!” so Sade rolled into a sitting position and shot four rounds from an M1911 into the zombie’s head until it quit twitching.

“Who’s golfing with me this weekend?” Eddie asked everyone. “
do
you think there are any courses still open?” Everyone ignored him, but they did so with smiles.

The crew checked the building again, first with thermals then with the spot lights. There was nothing left in the building but rats, mice and a family of raccoons, but they were easily shooed away.

Once cleared, they started loading cases of canned goods and other non-perishables onto the trailer and then into the SWAT truck.

It wasn’t a large store, but it had more than enough salvageable merchandise for the two vehicles. They took turns loading and keeping two others on perimeter making sure no one had been drawn by the sound of gunfire.

When fully loaded with as much as they could safely carry, the day had nearly run its course. Danny finished strapping the load to the trailer when Eddie called the shelter telling them to expect the foraging crew in an hour.

~     
~
     
~

Randy spent the day with Monica and Tony setting up the video surveillance system for the shelter. He climbed the trees and towers while Monica ran the wiring. When Monica, Randy and Eddie had raided the electronic store on their trip to Trussville, they didn’t realize all they’d recovered from the store.

When Monica and Kellie were going through the spoils, they found the boys had loaded a complete Q-SEE Advanced Series Surveillance System with eight outdoor cameras and four that had microphones. They’d also unknowingly grabbed seven rolls of wiring for the unit.

Monica threaded the wiring through the shelter while Randy put cameras on both the antennae, aimed both ways down the road, one pointing along the path in front of the shelter, one down the path to the garage and barn. The seventh had the longest run of wire as it was places on a tree over Tia’s motor home and the eighth Randy pointed out across the garden.

Randy got help from Cheryl with setting up the four audio cameras. These he placed as far from the shelter as possible and hid them high in the trees. He believed this would give the shelter advanced warning of invaders.

Out of deference to the fact that Monica hated her guts, wanted her dead and would spit on her corpse, when Randy would tell Cheryl that Monica would be in the area, she would find
some place
else to be.

Randy didn’t understand the depths of Monica’s hate for Cheryl. He thought it might be jealousy because Cheryl was long, lithe and beautiful, while Monica, while no longer obese, was still larger than average. Monica had become a stout woman rather than fat, her double chins had receded and her once fat face had toned up to where she was looking less like an over-stuffed couch and more like a roller derby blocker.

When Randy knew that Monica would be in the area he’d let Cheryl know and he’d hear her shuffle off, chain clinking like little bells. He didn’t talk about his friendship with Cheryl to Monica because he knew how women were and he didn’t want to get in the middle of a cat fight. He also didn’t want to do anything to mess up his chances with Cheryl.

The talk his dad and Kellie had with Cheryl this morning didn’t trouble him. He believed even Kellie would see that Cheryl had been a victim, that she was not in any way responsible for Mike’s death or the attack on the shelter. Cheryl was just an abused woman who was being held captive in a barn, without trial, and threatened with being banished, which Randy knew would be a death sentence.

Randy didn’t see what Monica had seen the day of the attack. Cheryl had been standing by the door with the two men, not as a beaten woman just following her captors, but as a participant. She’d told Jerry what she’d seen and that’s what prompted Jerry to finally speak to Cheryl herself. Monica had told Randy the same thing, but what she saw wasn’t what Randy heard. The pretty, sultry voice of Cheryl’s sounded a more plausible reason for her being there.

~     
~
     
~

Tony worked on the set up in the shelter. He plugged the DVD into a 42” television in the main room so he could see it easily. As Monica ran the wires to each of the cameras, he’d check the adjustment of each one, and then tested the microphone pick up. He was still recovering from his broken ankle, although he was getting around better. Monica figured another three weeks before she dared take off the make-shift cast.

After that, Tony would still need a splint and physical therapy, but he was making progress and that was better than being dead. There were three orbits in every 16 in which the space station was within the line of sight for contact the shelter. Tony made sure he was available to listen and speak to the people there as well as working on the surveillance system. There was not much the people at the shelter could do for the ISS crew who were returning to earth, but Tony wanted to know everything he could to help them.

The Russian commander gave explicit details on the recovery capsule, how to open it, what tools to have on hand and what precautions to take if the three mission specialists returning survived re-entry.

Everything about the recovery was a long shot, but the people coming back accepted the risk. They knew chances were good they would die, but the two Americans and the one Canadian would rather die on earth than in space.

Jerry collected the information from Tony and spent the afternoon arranging the recovery mission with Juan.
Tony’s
answer to real time communication between the shelter and the coast was dead end. The shelter had nine CB radios and it was about 300 miles to the coast. On a good day, which according to the station commander, the weather for landing tomorrow afternoon looked perfect on along the coast, the base station might reach up to 30 miles if tweaked, but the mobile units could only hope to reach five to 10 miles at best and they didn’t have enough time or power to set up a system. Tony also thought about getting a radio station working, but he didn’t have the talent or knowledge to get the Moody AM station back on the air and even that would be a one-way communication.

Jerry told him to forget worrying about it. The station commander would be able to transmit to the receiver Tony already had. Tony would spend the evening hours putting his short wave receiver and an antenna in the Ford. The station commander would update Jerry and his rescue crew, but Tony doubted the short wave would reach 220 miles into space.

They were just finishing the surveillance set up when Eddie called in that the foraging for food had gone well and they were on their way back.

Tony and Monica began cleaning up the living area. Tia and the others who weren’t living in the shelter worked in the garden while the kids played. The fields had been as completed as possible so it was more housekeeping around the farm.

Jerry, Randy and Kellie met at the final camera position. Cheryl wasn’t anywhere in sight. On and off during the day Jerry and Kellie had chances to talk about their morning conversation with Cheryl.  Jerry had come to a decision which would make no one happy. He remembered during his divorce a judge saying if no one was happy, then it’s a fair deal.

“Randy, I want to tell you I know you have been spending a lot of time with Cheryl,” he began as they headed back to the barn, being careful not to dismiss his son’s feelings or maturity. “I’ve given it a lot of thought today and I tell you, it hasn’t been an easy decision. I don’t think we can trust Cheryl. Maybe what she said is true, but I don’t think all of it is.”

“Dad, she’s been through a lot. She’s screwed up in the head and she’s told me she is. I think we owe it to her to give her a chance, just like we have all those other people we have living here.”

Jerry was getting pissed. He wasn’t asking for more input on his decision because he’d already had enough of the whole situation. He’d already made up his mind. Cheryl was bringing drama into his life and he hated that. He had to nip this situation quickly or a rift was going to come between him and his son and he wouldn’t tolerate that from anyone.

Kellie was smart enough to see Jerry’s temper was being pushed. There was tightness in his jaw that she’d seen before. She had the good sense to say nothing, nor to try to comfort either of them. Whichever way she leaned, she’d alienate the other. She had to remain out of this situation. She walked between the two men, not touching either, but near enough to show Jerry she supported him, but also to show Randy she was not afraid of being here with them, that she stood with them, as a family should.

“What I want to do is transport her to some other place, maybe find another encampment for her. While she is here and until we find another location for her, she is to remain in the leg irons,” Jerry said with finality.

“Tony has talked to the Smith compound and in time, he may find something closer. But while she is here, she is bad for us. She is a constant reminder of the death of Mike. Somewhere else, maybe they can accept her, but I don’t believe all of her story and others here suspect she’s lying too. No one will be able to trust her.”

“But dad, they don’t know her like I do. She’s been abused, raped and tortured and now you’re sending her away to someone else who might abuse her. She said she feels safe here. She doesn’t need to be in those damn leg irons like this is the 16th Century.”

“She is safe here, but she’s not welcome, son,” Jerry said. “If it was just me and you, that’d be one thing, but now we have kids here and other people who depend on us. We can’t take the chance of trusting her. Hell, if some people had their way, we’d drop her in the middle of
no where
and let her fend for herself. There are others who would do worse.” He didn’t tell his son Eddie would gladly stand Cheryl against a wall with a blindfold and a cigarette. Monica’s thoughts weren’t much better toward the woman.

“Will you at least talk to her again before you send her away?” Randy pleaded.

Jerry thought about it and could see no harm. He knew he wouldn’t change his mind, but sending her to another encampment might be the best for everyone, and it would let Randy know he was at least willing to listen to his son on important issues with the shelter.

His decision, however, had been made and there’d be no bad feelings against her at a new place unless she wanted to share her story of what happened here.

Jerry said he would talk to her again before making a final decision, but made sure Randy knew his mind was probably made up already. The three started the evening chores with the cow herd which had grown to 45 head. Randy wasn’t happy with his dad’s decision, but it was better than just dropping her off somewhere in the middle of
no where
.

It wasn’t what he wanted, and that was to tell Cheryl she was free to be part of their clan here. No place else but here would be good for him to build a close relationship with her.

However, his dad had said he would speak with Cheryl again after their return from the coast, so Randy would use that bit of hope when he spun the decision Jerry made to Cheryl. It might be enough to keep her from panicking and retreating into the curled up ball of tears on the bed.

~     
~
     
~

The people on the farm were just finishing chores when Eddie and his foraging crew showed up. They had loaded the vehicles with a lot of canned food to the cheers of everyone. The evening was filled with moving the food into the garage and stories of conquest over the zombies.

Kellie and Tia’s kids would begin sorting it in the morning.

Eddie, helping Randy and others unload the SWAT truck, showed his best friend the stash he’d found in the back of the store: two full cases of Bud Light. Randy was pleased because now he wouldn’t have to steal from his dad’s stock of beer. He and Eddie were not drinkers, but Eddie had liberated some beer before the fall of the world from his mom and the two got half-tanked and were giggling and falling down drunk after less than a six pack.